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Oklahoma State football: Mike Yurcich's former QB has no doubts he'll succeed in Stillwater

Trevor Harris, who now plays for the Toronto Argonauts, was a redshirt freshman at Edinboro University when Mike Yurcich took over as the offensive coordinator. When all was said and done, Harris had rewritten the record books at Edinboro.

But as they sat next to each other on the team bus returning home from a big road victory, they weren't looking back. They were looking ahead, talking about the next week's game.

OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY / OSU / COLLEGE FOOTBALL: New Oklahoma State offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich is pictured during a 2012 game at Shippensburg University. PHOTO COURTESY BILL SMITH, Shippensburg Sports Information ------- KOD

Harris, the quarterback, mentioned a scheme variation that he thought might work.

“Trev,” the coach said, “that's West Coast stuff.”

And with that, Mike Yurcich launched into what he knew of the West Coast offense. Then came the air raid. Then came the spread.

“He just kept spitting out concepts,” Harris said of the man who was hired Thursday to be Oklahoma State's new offensive coordinator. “It's about teaching, and he's a great teacher.”

Some question Yurcich and how he'll do making the jump to OSU from Shippensburg University, a Division II school in Pennsylvania. Can he handle the big time? Can he manage the major move?

Harris has no doubt.

“I've talked to a lot of guys during my career,” said Harris, who now plays for the Toronto Argonauts in the Canadian Football League. “There's a handful of guys — probably three or four — that you talk ball with and you just feel like their ceiling is unlimited with football knowledge.

“Coach Yurcich is way at the top of those guys.”

Harris was a redshirt freshman at Edinboro University when Yurcich took over as the offensive coordinator. The quarterback came from a Wing T offense in high school, and the coach wanted to implement more of a prostyle attack.

It didn't happen overnight.

“If you learn math,” Harris said, “you can't learn how to integrate functions until you learn how to add, subtract, multiply and divide.”

Slowly but surely, Yurcich taught Harris the skills, the sets, the plays.

When all was said and done, Harris had rewritten the record books at Edinboro. As the four-year starter, he threw for nearly 12,000 yards. The seasons that he played stand as the four best single-season marks in school history.

“I think he did a great job of building a foundation of football knowledge for me,” Harris said. “He has a good feel for that.”

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by Jenni Carlson

Columnist

Jenni Carlson, a sports columnist at The Oklahoman since 1999, came by her love of sports honestly. She grew up in a sports-loving family in Kansas. Her dad coached baseball and did color commentary on the radio for the high school football...